Balanced Meal Match

by Kim

 

We have been talking a lot at our house about vegetables, fruits, and grains. My five year old son is very into healthy eating (he says it will make him a better ninja). To help explain a balanced diet to my three year old I made some felt food. I then decided to remake some felt food to help my toddler learn her colors and color matching. This easy kids craft activity evolved from that and has been a huge hit with all three kids.

You will need a piece of felt in any colors you would like (but be sure to grab a white one), marker, scissors, and glue.

Draw out strips of bacon, a small circle, and a piece of fruit that coordinates with the color you are using. We used blueberries for blue, strawberries for red, green grapes for green, purple grapes for purple, lemon for yellow, grapefruit for pink, and orange slice for orange. Draw all of these things as close together as you can on one side of the felt.

Draw some blobs on the white felt. These are going to be your eggs.

Cut everything out. Older children can easily do this, but my three year old had trouble getting the felt to cut.

Trim the empty side of your felt piece into a rectangle. This will be your plate (or placemat if you want to put a plate on top of it).

Glue on the small colored circles to the white egg pieces as the egg yolks.

We spread out our plates on the table. The girls had a blast yelling the colors out as they placed the plates. We also had to count and make sure there was enough for everyone. 😉

Now match the colored pieces of food to the coordinating plates.

My toddler loved doing this part and would pretend to eat as she placed the food. It was so cute.

There was lots of cheering when we matched up everything.

My three year old and I talked about how eating just an egg probably wouldn’t give her all of the vitamins and energy she needs for her morning. We also talked about the importance of eating a fruit or a vegetable with each meal.

This activity is such a fun way to talk about food, color match, learn colors, work on motor skills, build teamwork, and the felt does make for fun sensory play.

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Kim is a contributing writer for No Time For Flash Cards, a mom to a toddler, a preschooler, and a foster parent, too. She juggles her day by trying out fun activities and crafts with the kids. After all, she is just a big kid herself. See what she has been up to over at Mom Tried It.